Friday 16 January 2015

real analysis - Proving that there is an irrational number between any two unequal rational numbers.

I'm trying to prove that there is an irrational number between any two unequal rational numbers $a, b$. Here's a "proof" I have right now, but I'm not sure if it works.



Let $a, b$ be two unequal rational numbers and, WLOG, let $a < b$. Suppose to the contrary that there was an interval $[a, b]$, with $a, b$ rational, which contained no irrational numbers. That would imply that the interval contained only rational numbers since the reals are composed of rationals and irrational numbers. Furthermore, this interval has measure $b-a$, a contradiction since this is a subset of $\mathbb{Q}$ which has measure zero.



Does this work? Is there an easier way to go about it, perhaps through a construction?




Construction: Let $a = \frac{m}{n}$, $b = \frac{p}{q}$. WLOG $a>b$. Then $a-b = \frac{m}{n}-\frac{p}{q} = \frac{mq-np}{nq}$. Since $mq - np > 1$, we can construct an irrational number $a + \frac{1}{nq\sqrt2}$ which is between $a$ and $b$.

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